It sounds to me like Mudville is describing a special ed. teacher. He needs a separate lesson plan for each player.

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Let's go Braden!

The Good

Agree it was healthy to see a solid contingent of our students at the game and our player mobility last night. This mobility was also part of the discussion where I sat last night at the game.

The Not so Good

-Agree that Rambler player development may be lacking. As I mentioned before, high hopes Danill is a mystery. Maybe a large part of that is simply coach/player breakdown in communication. Is our coach unsuccessful in communications and/or not delegating if/when needed or is there no one competent to whom he can delegate?

-Do we have a legit 3 pt shooter (40%+) on this team? It doesn't appear so.

Sure, Kymany is 41.7% but on 12 attempts all season. He usually attempts only when final seconds are on the clock and/or the play isn’t going anywhere. We therefore have Dotson @37% /92 attempts, and injured. Next is off-the-bench Love, injured, w 32.8 / 58 followed by Taverez @31.6/117. That 117 is a lot of attempts at 3's. Should he maybe try to slip in from the arc and try a few mid-rangers? I don't think his type of athleticism dictates that he should try a lot of drives to the basket, but I could be wrong.


What I liked best from last night was it gave others a chance to play. If/when we become competitive in a few weeks (wishful thinking) we’ll have a deep and reliable bench.

Go Ramblers!

It has been twenty plus years since I have posted here. Go Ramblers & Godspeed Brot you are missed. Hats off to JCT, for still running this board. Greetings, Big Joe Rambler.

I began watching Rambler basketball in 1993 chanting " Salthe Salthe" at a LU vs Depaul game at the Rosemont Horizon as a kid. Much has changed for the better here at Ramblermania. However, this 2025-26 team is way off.

This team can't get to the FT line, nor make FTs at high percentage, a major problem, that if you read these posts, others have noticed.

Being late on defense and passing, a casual viewer will see the timing is slow, they are off about a tenth of second in getting to their spots on the floor; which becomes disastrous over the course of a game. Which equates to probably conditioning?

Regardless, losing these close conference games late, is tough on the soul. I hope these Ramblers to make a run in the conference tournament to salvage some pride this season.

Also, losing to Chicago State - really.

My Lord, I was praying for something to make me feel young again during a long week. First the Bears win a playoff game, and then I see that name, and damned if that didn’t near do it. Until I saw *20 years*.

As for the game, watching that bench mob fly around was the most fun I’ve had watching a loss in…well not 20 years, but it’s been a while. At this point, nothing matters this year except development and a crazy run in March.

Have been a lot of comments about our Final 4 team and the way they played with impeccable spacing and ball movement, minimal dribbling and smooth, seamless defense. and almost always a very positive assist to turnover ratio. I thought I saw a lot of that by GW and was impressed but also thought I saw glimpses of it in our last game. Made me think it is not so much the physical talent of the players but the way they are willing to play.
Lots of comments on the make up of this years team and the one thing I notice is the lack of any bulk. This effects us in rebounding as well as getting to the hoop. And the way we attempt to switch on D often leaves us with mis-matches under neath the hoop. The ability of Townes and Williamson to get to the hoop when the 3 was overplayed certainly opened up a lot. Even the last two years the ability of Dez to finish at the hoop. It seems that Nic Anderson has that skill and as he develops physically will be a finisher at the rim. Again to the Final 4 team, everyone could handle the basketball, seems like this year we maybe have only one good ball handler on the court at a time.( although Reese didnt score he had 1 turnover in 23 minutes)
The comment on Drew yelling and pulling kids Daniil out. Seems to me that was Porter's Method of Operation.
As for make up of the team it seems Drew thought he had his 3 point shooter in Taverez but has not worked out yet. Thought he had his point guard in Moore but he has been hurt a lot. He seems to have fallen in love with tall, lanky players whose overall basketball skills are average at best......Which way do you go...try and recruit players that physically overmatch the other teams or recruit solid fundamental players/// that is if you cant find the diamond in the rough the physically talented player with solid basketball fundamentals. Dont fall in love with sparkle cuz as John Prine said " sometimes an old broken bottle looks just like a diamond ring"

This team has a lot of interesting pieces. IMO, Amos not playing impacts the team. I like the fight, but we don't have any steading forces. Our most successful teams have had a steading big man, like Dame, Deloach, and Schweiger. An older, experienced player who has an old school game. A player who can get a bucket or two when the tide is rolling against us. I hope that someone steps up. This season reminds of the season we brought Golden in as that player. He didn't fill the role and we had a rough season.

Good point Dame and Schweiger had old man YMCA open gym games.....and it was a plus for us.

Tape don't lie. Look at more tape and less from whence they came might solve some of the problems. If you look at our roster, you would think we were loaded. Some of these guys came from big, solid programs. They did leave those big solid programs meaning the schools didn't want to pay them the NIL or perhaps thought they were not front line players or stars.

NIL money and how to spend it are crucial in college hoops now. This year was probably the first time we really ever had a competitive NIL budge after we opted into the 20.5 million settlement for NIL. It's definitely been a learning experience for LU and Drew in how to spend it. If you are going to commit to spending that kind of money then you better get a GM or someone dedicated to scouting and doing some type of background on whoever you are bringing in. You also have to have a firm understanding what you are looking for in a player.

Good news is that with the landscape in college basketball, every year is a new year and you will always have the ability to churn you roster with graduations, transfers who were here for one year and out of eligibility, or guys on your roster who transfer. I think now the challenge is when you bring in guys who just are not progressing...is you have to be cut-throat and be willing to cut them loose and recycle that NIL money.